Mental Toughness, Physical Strength

Workout

For the longest time I convinced myself that morning weight training wasn’t for me, sure running or walking in the morning sets you up for the day but weight training…No Way! It just doesn’t suit my body. It makes me feel ill. I can’t push myself as hard. I’m too tired to perform mentally at work later in the day. All of these were legitimate excuses that I kept to keep me out of morning weight training where at all possible. All of this based on some poor morning performances I had previously resulting in some or all of the above on the one day through lack of preparation.

Roll forward to my latest programme, and I just cannot get enough of the morning training. I feel absolutely great and here’s why:

Today was the first tough day, initially physically from when I got up until I got home after work. I threw on my gym gear, sat in front of the tv for an hour and watched Futurama followed by The Simpsons. Now here is where the mentally tough part kicked in, another Simpsons about to start, I’m sleepy, tired, and my legs are absolutely shot from last night. Glutes in particular are painful. The easiest thing in the world would be to not go, some people watch a motivational video or find a good motivational post on a social network, I don’t….not this early into the programme. This is the first of many motivation challenges I will have to face to complete out this programme. Don’t use motivational vids or social media posts to give you motivation, only use them to give you MORE motivation, become mentally strong in yourself. F**k it, I’m going!

Day 4: Leg day is upon me, and I really feel lucky as my upper body is in tatters from Day 1 – Chest and Triceps and Day 2 – Back & Biceps. In particular my chest and triceps are ruined, even now writing this they still feel sore, success?! 🙂 The cardio activity every day is also taking it’s toll on my Legs, however I’m mentally focused and ready to smash my Leg workout!

Total Workout Time: 1 hr 8 minutes

Cardio: 20 minute low intensity workout on the Cross-trainer,

I usually like to complete my cardio prior to doing my weights work but as this is Leg day, I want my legs to be as fresh as possible when I hit the weights. As a result I pushed tonight’s cardio to the end of the workout. I chose the Cross-trainer as I find it easier on my joints and less taxing on my legs than the bike or treadmill. It was relatively easy to keep my heart rate up and keep a consistent pace for the 20 minutes. After my weights session below I felt that a bike or running session would result in me needing to stop, probably more than once!Cardio Mood: Good way to round off leg day, Feel satisfied that I have put in a great session.